Internal documents: Facebook's AI has minimal success enforcing its rules against problematic content, including removing an estimated 3%-5% of hate speech
Right now 30+ journalists are finishing up a coordinated series of articles based on thousands of pages of leaked documents. We hear that to get the docs, outlets had to agree to the conditions and a schedule laid down by the PR team that worked on earlier leaked docs.
To those news organizations who would like to move beyond an orchestrated ‘gotcha’ campaign, we are ready to engage on the substance. - John Pinette, VP Communications
We expect the press to hold us accountable, given our scale and role in the world. But when reporting misrepresents our actions and motivations, we believe we should correct the record.
A curated selection out of millions of documents at Facebook can in no way be used to draw fair conclusions about us. Internally, we share work in progress and debate options. Not every suggestion stands up to the scrutiny we must apply to decisions affecting so many people.
Over the last 6 weeks, including over the weekend, we've seen how documents can be mischaracterized. Obviously, not every employee at Facebook is an executive; not every opinion is the company's position.
There are a million things I could say about this hate speech prevalence debate, but it boils down to this: it perfectly illustrates just how worrisome it is that FB's integrity efforts are managed as growth initiatives. Long 🧵 so stick with me... https://www.wsj.com/...
Some context: Facebook over the same period has spent about $36 billion buying back the company's own stock. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Govts & media: If you don't do magic content moderation, you're bad and will be punished. Platforms: We're doing it! Govts & media: You lied about doing magic content moderation, you're bad and will be punished. I'm not even sure who's the bad guy in this story. But it's bad. htt…
It's actually very simple. When Facebook does embargoes, that's because they're necessary. Those embargoes are meant to help maximize impact. When journalists do embargoes, that's because they're duplicitous. Those embargoes are meant to misinform. https://www.vice.com/...
It's uncanny how Facebook PR has adopted the Trump admin voice of knee-jerk anti-press defensiveness. They haven't seen any of the new reporting on leaked docs but are so certain it's all wrong and bad faith. Weirdly aggressive from a company, even Facebook. https://twitter.com/.…
This is a long thread but if you are interested in hate speech on Facebook you should read it. I have long been concerned with the FB focus on single global metrics and lack of local / regional understanding. Individual teams do great work that is mismanaged by leadership. https:…
Looks like Facebook is trying to front-run some damaging coverage with this thread. Important to note coordination of coverage is not unprecedented with major leaks. We've seen it recently with FinCen Files and Pandora Papers. https://twitter.com/...
“A curated selection out of millions of documents at Facebook can in no way be used to draw fair conclusions about us.” Did... did Facebook just argue for publishing all their internal documents, without redactions? https://twitter.com/...
And that's odd that you say this because you regularly give researchers curated data to “find the truth ” but that's cool ? Maybe if you didn't shut down every tool designed for transparency y'a wouldn't be here https://twitter.com/...
Gee, I read this as “Facebook employees' opinions are not valid because they are not executives.” Wonder if Facebook employees read it the same way? https://twitter.com/...
This is actually great! Any responsible journalist working on a story about Facebook based on leaked documents will have surely reached out to Facebook to confirm, deny, and contextualize every relevant bit of information. Facebook says they're ready to fully engage. So... https:…
For those outside the industry: This is called a news embargo — you agree to hold information until a set time in exchange for early access to that info FB asks journalists to do this every single day. This is standard practice. https://twitter.com/...
I have literally hundreds of emails from Facebook throughout my career asking me to “agree to the conditions and a schedule laid down by the PR team” (which is just a fancy way of saying “embargo,” a common occurrence in journalism) https://twitter.com/...
This is an INCREDIBLY whiny, completely non substantive statement. You're Facebook! You have 60,000+ employees and dwarf newsrooms. https://twitter.com/...